The Cockroach Analysis 6p4g4x

GL

The Cockroach  Kevin Halligan I watched a giant cockroach start to pace, Skirting a ball of dust that road the floor. At first he seemed quite satisfied to trace A path between the wainscot and the door, But soon he turned to jog in crooked rings, Circling the rusty table leg and back, And flipping right over to scratch his wingsAs if the victim of a mild attack Of restlessness that worsened over time. After a while, he climbed an open shelf And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go. Was this due payment for some vicious crime A former life had led to? I don’t know Except I thought I recognised myself.

GL The Cockroach: What is the speaker reflecting upon and what methods does the poet use to convey this to the reader? The Cockroach can be interpreted in two ways. First, the more obvious meaning that the poet is watching a cockroach “pace” around the floor. However after a closer analysis the reader understands that Kevin Halligan uses the “giant” cockroach as a metaphor to describe himself and his life, or other “giant” people and their lives. Through his choice of structure, language and various literary devices, the poet can convey his message to the readers effectively and shape their thoughts and reactions on the subject. The poem is written in the form of a sonnet. Although at first this seems to confine the poet and limit his detail and content, thus having a less powerful impact on the reader, it does the opposite. The rigid restrictions allow the poet to condense his message and ideas into fourteen lines, which not only makes the poem more dramatic but also emphasizes his reflections. There is also a regular rhyme scheme, ababcdcd in the octave and defdfe. The slight change in rhythm from the octave to sestet helps to highlight the change in the cockroach’s movements, or the poet’s life. The regular rhythm in the octave also helps to set the pace of the cockroach and may represent a clock ticking as in time ing by. This idea is also suggested by the choice of Halligan’s vocabulary. He uses time phrases to indicate stages in his life, such as “at first” in the third line, “but soon” in the fifth, “over time” and “after a while” in the sestet. In the first quatrain the poet describes the beginning of his life. “Quite satisfied” implies that he was happy with his life then, and the verb “to trace” suggests that there was a clear “path”, mentioned in line four, set out for him and he was guided from one stage of his life to the next – just like how the cockroach walks “a path between the wainscot and the door”. The second quatrain starts off with “but soon”. The “but” signifies a turning point in the poet’s life, and he “turned” away from the clear path and instead tries to “jog in crooked rings”. This suggests that at this point in time he was confused. By placing the “but” at the beginning of the sentence he is emphasizing it, letting the readers know its importance. “Circling” might mean he is trying to walk straight but instead he walks in circles; his life is different than before and he does not know where to go anymore. The word “jog” is used to imply that this period went by slowly, as people usually jog for long distance runs. The poet uses many humanlike verbs such as “jog” to describe the cockroach’s actions, once again hinting that the intended description is not of the cockroach, but of a human, perhaps Halligan himself. Other actions include “circling” because real cockroaches don’t know what circles are, “flipping over”, “to scratch”. The last line is also very humanly – “victim of a mild attack” may suggest that the poet was victimized at this point in his life. The enjambment of the line links it with the sestet, which shows that they are connected. The octave describes and introduces the issue to us, and the sestet concludes it. By connecting the two lines, the poet binds the entire poem together, clearly showing the link one part of his life to the another. “After a while”, the cockroach “climbed” on an “open shelf”. “Climbed” suggests that the poet was much stronger and working very

GL hard then, because a lot of strength is needed for climbing. The fact that he was climbing upwards suggests improvement, as if he was doing better then. “Open shelf” creates the image of a vast, wide area with endless opportunities “stored” inside. However, it suddenly stops – in line eleven, there is a very abrupt “and stopped”. The enjambment from a very long line ten creates a very sudden, dramatic effect, as if the poet was building up tension and then suddenly dropping it. It makes the readers a little uncertain of what to think, which is exactly what Halligan wants, because he writes in the same line that he “looked uncertain where to go”. The impact of these words are that they reflect on the natural human behavior. He seems to have planned his dreams and goals so clearly, yet when he achieves them he doesn’t expect it and somehow doesn’t know what to do. He is perplexed and we can interpret this from line thirteen, when the poet asks a question: “A former life had led to? I don’t know”. It stresses his puzzled feeling. The poet ends the sestet by wrapping it all up with the line “Except I thought I recognised myself”. By placing this line at the very end of the poem, readers concentrate more on it and it shows purpose. It reassures the reader that he was indeed trying to refer to himself in the poem, his thoughts, his actions and his past.

GL “The Cockroach” Kevin Halligan ** Canadian poet, widely traveled, this was written while in Asia. Influenced, it seems, by the simplicity and focus on minute detail of much Asian poetry (haiku) – small ‘snapshots’ of life that represent large ideas. Poetic Devices 1

Tone/ big focus in this poem. Tone is not the usual revulsion people have toward cockroaches. It’s objective and analytical, moving toward empathetic and meditative

2

Rhyme/ simple, focus on content/moment, twist at end signals shift from obvs to realization Line/ long sentences which extend past the lines rep the continuous nature of life

3

Blank narrator/ focus on event, relatable

4

Extended metaphor/ cockroach as the poet/as us; snapshot reflects Man’s relationship to Nature (affinity and empathy)

Structure Simplicity is tightly constructed (like “HS”) and is crafted to focus on content and feeling, not distracting or lengthy prose The CR is given great attention and importance – usually reserved for human subjects. This foreshadows the CR “being” the poet at the end. CR moving along straight line of “wainscot and door” symbolizes our steady paths early in life. We all go to school, graduate, uni, grad, job, married, kids...but then confusion happens: ‘restlessness’, ‘flipping right over’ and ‘victim of a mild attack’. We don’t know what comes next. No one is telling us what we should do anymore. The short sentence amid all the long ones, “And stopped”, also shows this confusion. Life works in cycles: stabilityconfusiondecision. The CR/poet stops dead because of indecision (instead of fear in “HS”). He needs to decide what to do next – like a midlife crisis. Feelings/tone of pity for CR shown. The poet feels this same existential/life crisis. The rhetorical question focus reader on their choices/actions/repercussions. The concept of karma comes into play here – people’s responsibilities re: actions and consequences. That the poet jumps to the conclusion that this is karmic punishment for CR could signal guilt he has over something he’s done. The focus is beginning to shift here from CR to poet

GL “I” emerges as a true character then. This emphasizes that poet is now reflecting on his own life, own confusion about life, own need to make choices Analysis Tone is not the usual revulsion associated with cockroaches. Not awe, like “HS”, but empathy/affinity. The poet is shown to know no more about life/these existential issues than a cockroach. This connects the poet and CR (just as it universally connects all of us – none of us know what is supposed to come next. Karma again: some believe you are on Earth to figure out your purpose. You keep coming back and making choices until you do. We don’t know what the ‘right’ choices are and this lack of knowledge brings us together). This idea of ‘oneness’ with a CR is humbling. Man likes to think with our big brains we’re superior – but we’re not. We’re equal (diff from “HS” but both involve idea of respect for Nature, just for different reasons) Serious poem (simple, straight-forward structure is more informative than poetic). Few breaks, , reflects the continuous nature of life and how it will go on without you if you don’t make decisions. The short line (line 8) signals a shift in the poem from straight-forward observation to a more complex process of existential realization (we’re all the same). The irregular rhyme scheme at end is not just a reflection of this more complex content, but it also reflects the existential confusion felt by the CR/poet/all of us We can see a theme of a) need to live responsibly, b) Man and Nature as equal, sharing an affinity over life’s crises/ a lack of definite knowledge of what to do next. Here, Man and Nature are not inferior/superior like in “HS” (we’re equal), but respect for Nature is shared in both poems (via fear/awe in “HS” and via understanding/ affinity in “TC”) and a sense of Man being humbled (via fear/awe/inferiority in “HS” and via affinity/empathy/equality in “TC”

GL "Comment on the particular presentation and observations of the narrator." The narrator is initially a blank narrator as he focuses purely on the events, which consists of the cockroach moving across a room. As the poem progresses, the narrator draws away from purely the event and comments on the "restlessness" and uncertainty that this insect eventually portrays. This change is observation coupled with the presentation of the cockroach as the main focus, foreshadows what is to come in the poem Many a poem's focus, mainly reserved for human attention, but in this poem, the cockroach, a dirty, repulsive insect takes the place as the main focus and this could foreshadow the author's projection of himself as the cockroach. This projection, defining empathy, is further reinforced by the continuous use and prevalence of "I" in the last few lines. The "I" present in this poem initially concerning a cockroach indicates that the poet is reminiscing about his life and choices The rhyme scheme is simple as the narrator describes his observation but changes when the narrator is reminiscing and asking rhetorical questions until the rhyme scheme is shattered by the last line. "Except I thought I recognised myself", this line shows the complex content held by the change in feeling and thought pattern of the narrator. This confusion is in turn felt by the reader as the gravity of the poet's self projection is grasped by the reader The reader initially assigns a repulsive idea when reading the title but the narrator's empathetic presentation of the cockroach and eventual meditative and nostalgic tendencies are present, showing the selfreflection in the closing lines, which are ironic in that it goes against what the reader expects This poem links very nicely in its narrator's presentation to that of the The Hunting Snake by Judith Wright, in which both poems present their main focus as natural personas, yet the underlying, extended metaphors differ

GL The Cockroach: Kevin Halligan At first glance, the poem ‘The Cockroach’ by Kevin Halligan is about, as the name suggests, a cockroach. However, with a deeper reading, it later appears that the detailed description of the cockroach is an extended metaphor of either, the persona (presumably the poet himself) or of humans in general. This is first hinted by the fact that the cockroach is ‘giant’ – is it large for its species, or large to the point it is the size of a human? This is later reinforced by the activities of the cockroach described in later lines – ‘jog’, ‘trace’, ‘circle’, etc – remarkably human like actions for an insect. These closely described frantic actions of the cockroach (lines 311) seem to represent human nature in a way; first the cockroach is satisfied with his current situation, but then quickly gets bored of it and begins to want something more, something new, and so does so – beginning to shift from his activity of tracing the ‘path between the wainscot and the door’ to ‘jog in crooked rings….” He is then struck by a case of restlessness, but then finally finds something exciting, new – the open shelf. However instead of going straight in, he hesitates, ‘he looked uncertain where to go’. His actions seem to represent human nature, how we, sometimes very suddenly, realize that instead of being content and satisfied with what we have, we want more – more experience, more money, more social life – the depths of human wants are endless. We soon get restless and bored and disappointed at our current lives as it is not where we want to be However, when we actually find an opportunity to take the chances to get what we want – there is sometimes a moment of hesitation and uncertainty: is this what we really want? Is the risk worth it to take the chance? Do we really want to leave our comfortable current life? And then, along with the definite realization that the cockroach personifies the persona or humans in general with the last line (‘Except I thought I recognized myself’), the true idea of the poem is revealed – that humans scurry through life frantically, almost rushing through it, but without any true goal or purpose. We are constantly looking for choices we can take, but when actually presented with them, realize that we don’t even know what we truly want